The current-carrying steady state that arises in the middle of a metallic wire connected to macroscopic leads is characterized regarding its response functions, correlations, and entanglement entropy. The spectral function and the dynamical structure factor show clear nonequilibrium signatures accessible by state-of-the-art techniques. In contrast with the equilibrium case, the entanglement entropy is extensive with logarithmic corrections at zero temperature that depend on the lead-wire coupling and, in a nonanalytic way, on voltage. This shows that some robust universal quantities found in gapless equilibrium phases do not persist away from equilibrium.
The current-carrying steady state that arises in the middle of a metallic wire connected to macroscopic leads is characterized regarding its response functions, correlations, and entanglement entropy. The spectral function and the dynamical structure factor show clear nonequilibrium signatures accessible by state-of-the-art techniques. In contrast with the equilibrium case, the entanglement entropy is extensive with logarithmic corrections at zero temperature that depend on the lead-wire coupling and, in a nonanalytic way, on voltage. This shows that some robust universal quantities found in gapless equilibrium phases do not persist away from equilibrium.
We investigate the size scaling of the entanglement entropy (EE) in nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs) of a one-dimensional open quantum system with a random potential. It models a mesoscopic conductor, composed of a long quantum wire (QWR) with impurities and two electron reservoirs. The difference of the chemical potentials of the reservoirs induces a steady current, and a NESS is realized in the QWR. Owing to multiple scatterings by the impurities, the translational invariance is broken and the NESS becomes much different from a boost of an equilibrium state. We assume zero temperature for the reservoirs, and the corresponding pure quantum state for the total system. The EE is given by the von Neumann entropy SL of a subsystem of length L in the QWR. SL at equilibrium, SLeq, obeys the logarithmic law SLeq=O(lnL). In NESSs far from equilibrium, however, SL grows anomalously fast obeying the `quasi volume law,' SL=η(L)L∣ΔkF∣+O(lnL). Here, ΔkF is the difference of the Fermi wavenumbers of the reservoirs, and η(L) satisfies a≤η(L)≲2a, where a is a positive constant independent of L or ΔkF. This anomalous behavior arises from both nonequilibrium and multiple scatterings by impurities.
We investigate the entanglement properties of the equilibrium and nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) Fermi gases, by computing entanglement entropies of extended space regions, which generally show multiplicative logarithmic corrections to the leading power-law behaviors, corresponding to the logarithmic corrections to the area law. We consider 2D and 3D Fermi gases of N particles constrained within a limited space region, for example, by a hard-wall trap, at equilibrium at T=0, i.e., in their ground state, and compute the first few terms of the asymptotic large-N behaviors of entanglement entropies and particle fluctuations of subsystems with some convenient geometries, which allow us to significantly extend their computation. Then we consider their nonequilibrium dynamics after instantaneously dropping the hard-wall trap, which allows the gas to expand freely. We compute the time dependence of the von Neumann entanglement entropy of space regions around the original trap. We show that at small time it is characterized by the relation $S\ensuremath{\approx}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}V/3$ with the particle variance, and multiplicative logarithmic corrections to the leading power law, i.e., $S\ensuremath{\sim}{t}^{1\ensuremath{-}d}\mathrm{ln}(1/t)$.
In this Thesis we discussed several issues related to the dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems. The brief overview of Chapter 1 highlighted a series of open fundamental theoretical questions which are crucial for the investigation of nonequilibrium phenomena. Among them, we mainly focused on the emergence of thermal behaviors and on the characterization of dynamical phase transitions and of the associated universal dynamics. To this end, we analyzed some paradigmatic models, such as the Fermi-Hubbard model, the quantum Ising chain, and the O(N) model. -Chapter 2: Absence of thermalization in a Fermi liquid. In this Chapter we report two results that question the common expectation of thermalization in a Landau-Fermi liquid after an interaction quench. We first consider the perturbative expansion in the interaction strength of the long-wavelength structure factor S(q) and show that it does not satisfy the hypothesis that steady-state averages correspond to thermal ones. In particular, S(q) has an analytical component ∼ const. + O(q^2) for q → 0, compatible with thermalization, but it retains also a nonanalytic term ∼ |q| characteristic of a Fermi liquid at zero-temperature. In real space, this nonanalyticity turns in a power-law decay of the density-density correlations, in contrast with the exponential decay associated to thermalization. We next analyze the low-density case, where one can obtain results valid at any order in interaction but at leading in the density, and find that in the steady state the momentum distribution jump at the Fermi surface is strictly finite, though smaller than at equilibrium. -Chapter 3: Nonadiabatic stationary behavior in a driven Ising chain. In this Chapter we discuss the emergence of a nonadiabatic behavior in the dynamics of the order parameter in a low-dimensional system subject to a linear ramp of one of its parameters within a gapped phase, which should be the most favorable situation for an adiabatic evolution. We study in details the dynamics of the spontaneous magnetization m_x(t) in a quantum Ising chain after a linear variation in time of the transverse field within the ordered phase. In particular, focusing on the value of the order parameter at the end of the ramp m_x(τ), we show that the smaller the switching rate of the transverse field is the closer m_x(τ) gets to its ground state value. Nonetheless, this apparently small correction to adiabaticity eventually leads to the disruption of the order exponentially fast in the subsequent time evolution, no matter how slowly the ramp is performed. -Chapter 4: Aging and coarsening in isolated quantum systems after a quench. This Chapter analyzes the nonequilibrium dynamics of an isolated quantum system after a sudden quench to the dynamical critical point, where the emergence of scaling and universal exponents is expected, due to the absence of time and length scales. We explore these features for a bosonic interacting scalar field theory with O(N) symmetry in the large-N limit, where the model is exactly solvable and the exponents and scaling forms of the relevant two-time correlation functions can be analytically calculated. Moreover, we provide evidence of the emergence of a dynamical scaling behavior also for quenches below the dynamical critical point, associated with coarsening. We find that the latter case is characterized by the same scaling functions as those describing the critical case, yet with different exponents. -Chapter 5: Dynamical transitions and statistics of excitations. In this Chapter we study the dynamics of the O(N) model (introduced in the previous Chapter) resulting from a different protocol: a linear ramp of one of its parameters. We find that the presence of a dynamical phase transition, as well as its critical properties, are robust against the change of the protocol. We show that a characterization based on the critical dimensions and exponents would suggest that the dynamical phase transition is analogous to the equilibrium thermal one. However, its nonequilibrium nature becomes evident analyzing the statistics of excitations produced in the ramp process. In particular, the critical properties are encoded in the fluctuations in the number of excitations, which display qualitatively different behaviors depending on the ramp being performed above, at, or below the dynamical critical point. These behaviors bear no dependence on the duration of the protocol.
Entanglement measures constitute powerful tools in the quantitative description of quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium. We study entanglement in the current-carrying steady state of a paradigmatic one-dimensional model of noninteracting fermions at zero temperature in the presence of a scatterer. We show that disjoint intervals located on opposite sides of the scatterer, and within similar distances from it, maintain volume-law entanglement regardless of their separation, as measured by their fermionic negativity and coherent information. The mutual information of the intervals, which quantifies the total correlations between them, follows a similar scaling. Interestingly, this scaling entails in particular that if the position of one of the intervals is kept fixed, then the correlation measures depend non-monotonically on the distance between the intervals. By deriving exact expressions for the extensive terms of these quantities, we prove their simple functional dependence on the scattering probabilities, and demonstrate that the strong long-range entanglement is generated by the coherence between the transmitted and reflected parts of propagating particles within the bias-voltage window. The generality and simplicity of the model suggest that this behavior should characterize a large class of nonequilibrium steady states.
We calculate the nonequilibrium electronic transport properties of a one-dimensional interacting chain at half filling, coupled to noninteracting leads. The interacting chain is initially in a Mott insulator state that is driven out of equilibrium by applying a strong bias voltage between the leads. For bias voltages above a certain threshold we observe the breakdown of the Mott insulator state and the establishment of a steady-state electronic current through the system. Based on extensive time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group simulations, we show that this steady-state current always has the same functional dependence on voltage, independent of the microscopic details of the model and we relate the value of the threshold to the Lieb-Wu gap. We frame our results in terms of the Landau-Zener dielectric breakdown picture. Finally, we also discuss the real-time evolution of the current, and characterize the current-carrying state resulting from the breakdown of the Mott insulator by computing the double occupancy, the spin structure factor, and the entanglement entropy.
We obtain the steady-state phase diagram of a transverse-field XY spin chain coupled at its ends to magnetic reservoirs held at different magnetic potentials. In the long-time limit, the magnetization bias across the system generates a current-carrying nonequilibrium steady state. We characterize the different nonequilibrium phases as functions of the chain's parameters and magnetic potentials, in terms of their correlation functions and entanglement content. The mixed-order transition, previously observed for the case of a transverse-field Ising chain, is established to emerge as a generic feature of a wider class of out-of-equilibrium problems. The critical exponents associated with this universality class are determined analytically. Results are also contrasted with those obtained in the limit of Markovian reservoirs. Our findings should prove helpful in establishing the properties of nonequilibrium phases and phase transitions of extended open quantum systems.